Sunday, 16 July 2017

In the
previous post, I outlined that the genetic basis of the “breeding-back”
population as a whole, when adding up all projects, might not be that broad
considering that many of the projects use the same breeds and also from the
same herds. Therefore, I introduced a number of breeds that have not been used
in “breeding-back” before but might be of similar value as the breeds currently
used. In the previous post, I focused on breeds from Europe. But to gain much
more genetic diversity and also some very advantageous phenotypic traits, I am
going to look at another cattle group in this post: Turano-Mongolian cattle.

Turano-Mongolian cattle

First of
all, many might wonder what are Turano-Mongolian cattle. They are a genetically
distinct group of taurine cattle1, once even considered to have been
domesticated independently (which is debunked now, all taurine cattle seem to
have originated in the Near East2). They are to be found in Asia and
have also been slightly influenced by other taurine cattle and zebuine cattle1.
Nevertheless, they are probably only very distantly related to the breeds used
in breeding-back and probably would boost the genetic diversity dramatically.

But they
offer several other advantages as well. I introduce a number of
Turano-Mongolian breeds now that I looked up so far.

Unfortunately,
as all interesting and unique landraces, they are threatened by dilution with
derived breeds.

Yakutian cattle and other Siberian breeds

Siberian Turano-Mongolian
cattle, especially Yakutian cattle, are extremely resistant to very low
temperatures (probably more so than wild aurochs, which seemingly never lived
in regions of -35-50°C). They have adaptions like a very thick winter coat,
small udders, short scrota and dewlaps and, which is unique among cattle, show
a torpor at low temperatures. Crossbreeding with Yakutian cattle could be very
beneficial for breeding-back because of these traits. F.e. Taurus cattle at
Hortobagy are reported to be less resistant to the cold and dry winters in the
Puszta than the Przewalski’s horses, and Yakutian genes could help them to
survive the winters without supplementary feeding. Furthermore, Yakutian cattle
would compensate that the fact most of the breeds currently used and those that
I proposed before are from the subtropical zone. Yakutian cattle would be the
perfect ecological compensation for the African Watussi being used in at least
two projects/breeds (Hungarian Taurus cattle, Watussi).

They
display several colour variants, wild type colour among it. Mongolian rural
cattle might be of similar value.

East-Asian Turano-Mongolian breeds

Mishima cow

Yanbian cow

Bulls of a) Hanwoo, b) Chikso, c) Heugu, d) Jeju

Wagyu bull

another Wagyu bull

Precisely I
am talking about the breeds Wagyu, Mishima, Yanbian, Kalmyk (a steppe breed
again), Kuchinoshima and some native Korean cattle, and there might be more. They
are robust landraces, but mostly very small (bulls below 130cm at the withers).
But what strikes me is their aurochs-like build, especially in Yanbian and
Mishima. They have a short, deep ribcage with a pronounced hump, horns that are
small but sometimes of useful curvature and large skulls that are not
paedomorphic. That black Mishima cow alone has a very aurochs-like morphology,
actually if it had the right colour and horns it would match up with my
conception of an aurochs cow extremely well. Their small size might be
problematic, but I think their distant genetics, good anatomy and ecologic
capacity are of great value. Crossbreeding them with f.e. Maltese, a very large
breed that is superbly built already, might result in some very useful animals.

I think
that the advantages of Turano-Mongolian cattle are rather obvious. However, one
might argue that their distinct genetics make them “unique” and therefore they
should not be crossbred with other taurine cattle in breeding-back. But I think
this argument would be a little bit absurd under consideration that it is
universally agreed that a rich gene pool is viable for any population and
therefore another, parallel goal of breeding-back.

One major
problem however is the geographic distribution of Turano-Mongolian cattle. With
the exception of the popular Wagyu, which is also breed in Europe, their
distribution is quite far away from Europe. So maybe one would have to rely on
semen once again, which is way easier than importing a number of cattle over
such large distances.

The
introduction of Turano-Mongolian cattle into the “breeding-back” population would
probably be very advantageous concerning genetic diversity and also ecologic/morphological
traits. Another region that might hide some treasures for “breeding-back” is the
Near and Middle East. Actually, that region seems to be uncharted land for
“breeding-back”, but I am sure that there are a lot of very un-derived
cattle to find. They are probably mostly small-bodied and small-horned, but I
am confident that many of them will exhibit aurochs-like colour and morphology.
Genetically, the chance is good that they will be comparably diverse, since
this is the region where the aurochs was domesticated. Many of them will
probably also be influenced by zebuine cattle, but zebuine genes are hardly
avoidable. The pictures below show two individuals from Egypt, randomly
discovered on some news flash on the web on a totally different subject.

If I was to
conduct an expedition to find primitive taurine cattle, I would go there to get
an overview over those landraces, especially since they are probably
threathened by being diluted by crossbreeding with highly derived breeds as
well.

4 comments:

Hello Daniel, thank you for your interesting post.There is a number of breeds that as far as I know were never used or even mentioned in this kind of programs. If you want I can send you some information and pictures if you would be so kind to send me an email to the following address: joaocarlosferro@gmail.com

Another good article. Do you think the yakutian cattle's tendency to store extra fat in preparation for lean months could be problematic for the breeding programs that would have more temperate climates? Also have you heard of a Wagyu sub breed called Akaushi? Would they be at all useful or are they as bit too heavily built? They just seem to be the easiest sub breed I could see available where I'm located, which piqued my curiosity.

About this blog

This blog is on everything related to the so-called “breeding-back” of extinct animals: From the extinct animals themselves, over their often domestic descendants and dedomestication to news and facts about various breeding-back projects, reports and photos from my own breeding-back related trips. I try to have a balanced and fact-based approach to this subject and to dismantle many of the popular myths. Enjoy!

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About me

My major interest always have been extinct animals, from dinosaurs to Pleistocene megafauna and more recent extinctions. Besides that I am interested in evolution, genetics and ecology.
I am also an amateur animal artist, making drawings and models mostly of extinct animals.